Popular Articles

The Impact Of Extracurricular Activities On Student Achievement At The High School Level, Steven Wesley Craft

Dissertations

The pressure applied on public schools to increase test scores and student achievement are reaching the highest levels ever seen in the United States. School systems are trying to find ways to increase student achievement while dealing with severe budget cuts. Many school systems are exploring the possibility of decreasing or suspending funding for extracurricular activities. This study explored the relationship between student achievement and participation in extracurricular activities. The study focused on the impact that participation in extracurricular activities had grade point average, absentee rate, SAT scores, and success on the Georgia High School Graduation Test. In order to ...

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The number of standardized achievement tests that students in the United States are required to take has increased significantly during the past decade. Researchers have found that test anxiety is often a problem related to the increase in testing. This correlational study investigated the relationship between anxiety levels of 50 4th grade students and their standardized test scores. Test anxiety questionnaires and pulse rates were used as a measure of the anxiety level of each of the 4th grade students just before the standardized test was administered, and standardized test scores were used as a measure of academic performance. The ...

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of the current study was to identify the extent to which learning styles influence the educational process as well as the outcome of students, particularly elementary-age students, in terms of academic achievement. This study examined the potential relationship between the degree of match (as determined by comparing learning style preferences of students with instructional strategies of teachers) and the academic achievement of fourth grade students as shown by Palmetto Assessment of State Standards scores in four academic content areas, namely English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. The researcher collected data from a sample of approximately 200 ...

Examination Board

This paper discusses teacher education in Pakistan with particular emphasis on teachers’ conceptions of teaching in improving quality of education. This paper is based on an initial study that examines teachers’ conceptions of teaching in the context of Pakistan. The study seeks to explore whether teachers’ conceptions of teaching influence decision-making in classroom teaching. It describes conditions of teaching and learning in Pakistan and argues for reform in teacher education to improve quality of teaching and learning.

Student Behavior Management : School Leader’S Role In The Eyes Of The Teachers And Students, Shirin Nooruddin, Sharifullah Baig

Professional Development Centre, Gilgit

This study explored the perspectives and viewpoints of the teachers and students in relation to the influence of the head teacher and senior leadership team on students’ behavior management in the form of policies, procedures and support mechanisms in a secondary school in Karachi Pakistan. Two surveys were developed and employed, one for the entire teaching staff (N=43) and one for a sample of students (n=120). The majority of teachers (97%) and students (83%) reported that school leadership influences students’ behavior management through policies and procedures. A large number of the teachers are of the view that sharing ...

Principals' Strategies For Improving The Academic Achievement Of Students Of Disadvantaged Rural Junior High Schools In Ghana, Erasmus Kormla Norviewu-Mortty

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The academic performance of students in public basic schools in rural Ghana during the past two decades has declined significantly (Akyeampong, 2007). Government efforts to remedy this have not yielded any sustainable result (Atta-Quayson, 2007). The Saboba District Junior High Schools are among the lowest-performing rural schools. Generally, inadequate funding and resourcing are blamed for poor academic achievement of disadvantaged, rural students. During eight years of teaching in the Saboba District, the Researcher observed that the academic achievement of students in some schools remained high while that of others in the same locality remained low. Further, the Researcher’s experiences ...

Perceptions Of High School Students Of The Impact Of A School Uniform Policy, Stacy L. Gregory

Theses and Dissertations

High schools are tirelessly pondering ideas of enhancing the learning environment by increasing academic engagement and safety. This phenomenology study was designed to report and analyze the perceptions of selected students about their academic engagement and safety while attending one high school. Data for this study were obtained through interviews that were conducted on two levels: focus group and individual interviews. The results indicate that uniforms by themselves have little to do with a student's academic engagement. Students believe that their teachers play a big part in the way that they participate in educational tasks. They also believe that ...

Teacher Collaboration As Professional Development In A Large, Suburban High School, Marlie L. Williams

Public Access Theses and Dissertations from the College of Education and Human Sciences

This qualitative study explored the impact of teacher collaboration in a professional learning communities (PLC) school on teacher self-efficacy. Through the collection and analysis of personal interview data from 20 teachers in a large, suburban Midwestern high school, the impact of structured teacher collaboration was evaluated for its impact on changes in teachers’ instructional practices, their feelings of responsibility for student learning, positive adult interdependence, and changes in teacher self-efficacy. Experts in educational professional development identify the importance of sustained, collegial learning. This study explored the structure of one high school’s professional collaboration model, the measures in place for ...

The Effect Of Teachers’ Expectations And Perceptions On Student Achievement In Reading For Third And Fifth Grade Students, Alfreda Ragland Williams

Dissertations

All too often, a student’s lack of success is blamed on his or her background, and/or the parent or the parent’s educational level. Many factors such as socioeconomic conditions, student behaviors, attendance, and teacher demographics can directly or indirectly affect class environment, classroom management, interaction with students, and equal treatment of students. In addition, a teacher’s perception of students plays a vital role in the teacher’s expectations, interactions, and relationships with his or her students. The purpose of the study was twofold. First, this study investigated the relationship between teachers’ expectations of equal treatment of ...

Dissertations

African American women are graduating from college at rates higher than their Asian/Pacific Islander, Latino, Native American and even their African American male peers. This level of college persistence and success is occurring amid the challenges they face and share with their peers of the same schools, neighborhoods and society. Similar to many of their peers, these young women experience under-resourced schools and limited college preparation. In addition, they have unique school challenges including experiences with negative stereotypes and harsh discipline policies. African American women also face societal challenges through experiences with trauma, foster care and disproportionate early parenting ...

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article includes portions of a report on the structure, governance, operations, and effectiveness of the Boston School Committee that was commissioned by the Boston Municipal Research Bureau in 1980. The passages provide an overview of the mandate, background, and recommendations, examining how a set of prominent professionals and citizens viewed the problem facing school department governance, including its isolation and the longstanding credibility gap fueled by patronage politics. It also looks at continued tensions between “equality” and “quality,” which occupied the heart of court-ordered desegregation; rising demands on a system that lacked the capacity to serve a broad array ...

Getting Power Back: Court Restoration Of Executive Authority In Boston City Government (1985), Marcy Murninghan

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article, originally published in 1985, is based partly on the author’s experience with the Boston school desegregation case, but goes beyond it. It chronicles some of the events that occurred when a state and a federal court attempted to disengage from active jurisdiction over two Boston public systems: the Boston Public Schools and the Boston Housing Authority. It makes three proposals, which, if enacted, would help to keep the courts out of day-to-day management of municipal operations. It also makes some generalizations about the court-agency interplay that are relevant to the post-remedial phase of institutional reform litigation. The ...

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

Pipeline To Failure: Social Inequality And The False Promises Of American Public Schooling, Adia Wilson

All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My experience as a New York City public school student was absolutely electrifying, though filled with many trials. While my mother would have preferred to put me in private school, having access to some of the world’s greatest institutions and resources offered unique opportunities and exposures. The performing arts provided me with an outlet to express myself and build skills and confidence. In particular, dance education kept me occupied and disciplined in a large city full of danger. Every so often, I witnessed hostile, or even violent exchanges between students, or students and staff. While some of my schoolmates ...

A Qualitative Case Study On Delegation Of School Nursing Practice: School Nurses, Teachers, And Paraprofessionals Perspectives, Sharon L. Schofield

Theses and Dissertations

For the past decade, there have been many changes to school nursing with the implementation of unlicensed assistant personnel now known as paraprofessionals. This process has brought about several concerns such as mode of delegation, education, training, ability to monitor health-care needs, and organizational effects that trended downward without direction. This qualitative inquiry gave an interpretative meaning to the process of delegation in school nursing, the factors that hinder the delegation process as well as components that are needed to effectively delegate and utilize support staff (paraprofessionals) without detrimental effects to students. This study interviewed 20 participants.

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Alternative school settings are success prospects for students at risk of school failure. However, research on the daily experiences of the special educators in alternate school settings tasked with educating the at-risk population, is limited. The purpose of this phenomenological study was (a) to recognize the perceptions of special educators concerning their preparation to advance the success of SEN students who are at risk of school failure; (b) to determine how to improve special educator preparation programs in alternative school settings. Deci and Ryan's self-determination theory, focused on student success provided the study's framework. Twelve semistructured interviews were ...

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Reading is one of the primary goals of the early elementary grades. When students start to struggle with this complex skill, educators and parents search for solutions to rectify quickly mounting gaps before a child falls too far behind. In the State of Oklahoma, lawmakers have passed a law requiring mandatory 3rd grade retention for students who do not pass the state reading test. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the perceptions of stakeholders who had experienced implementation of mandated student retention in early childhood. The study is informed by Bourdieu's cultural capital theory of ...

Elementary Music Teachers' Perceptions Of The Effect Of Budget Reductions On Music Education, Jimmy Michel

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Since 2007, many U.S. music education programs have been negatively affected by budget reductions at the local, state, and national levels. Although researchers have studied the effect of budget reductions on music education, they have not widely examined the perspectives of teachers who have experienced these reductions. The purpose of this study was to explore elementary music teachers' personal and professional experiences with budget reductions, and the perceptions of how their programs, students, schools, and communities have been affected by the budget reductions. The philosophies of Kodaly and Richards served as a conceptual framework for this qualitative case study ...

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The local problem that prompted this study was declining student achievement scores in the 4th and 5th grades at a Title 1 elementary school in the southeastern U.S. As a result, school administrators initiated an environmental change from a self-contained classroom structure to departmentalization and team teaching for 4th and 5th grades. The purpose of the study was to investigate perspectives of teachers and administrators regarding their needs to address their own self-efficacy for improving student learning, and their perspectives of the team teaching and departmentalization processes in enhancing student achievement. The conceptual framework for this study was Bandura ...

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Compared to their peers, gifted and talented (GT) students have unique social and emotional needs. As schools mandated social and emotional learning goals for each GT student, support at the state level was limited. The purpose of the study was to answer the guiding question of how students could benefit from implementing key elements in a GT social and emotional curriculum. The study was guided by Corso's approach to promoting and developing positive social-emotional behavior. Data were collected from questionnaires administered to 32 statewide GT experts. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 10 of those GT experts. Thematic data analysis ...

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The use of subtractive bilingual models in Puerto Rico may influence children's construction of social categorizations. There is a gap in the literature related to linguistics, ethnicity, and systems of education and acculturation of a majority group. The purpose of this multiple case study was to examine the influence of the language of instruction and teachers' communicative practices in private and public schools on first graders' ethnic identity construction in the municipality of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The conceptual framework of the study was based on Markus's unified theory of race and ethnicity, Berry's bidimensional model of ...

“More Challenging Than I Expected But More Satisfying”: Exploring The Experiences Of New Heads Of Independent Schools And The Leadership Skills They Employ, Andrew O'Brien

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This study examines leader behavior in an independent school setting. Specifically, this qualitative phenomenological study explores the lived experiences of new heads of schools in independent schools located in Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma and their conceptualization of the skills required for the headship. The study explores the knowledge and skills new heads say they use as leaders, how the knowledge and skills they developed in their careers prepared them for leadership, and the ways in which they feel they might have been better prepared for leadership. The study uses the skills-based model of leadership as its theoretical framework, and its ...

Best Practices Used By Assistant Superintendents Of Curriculum And Instruction: Improving Teacher Instruction In A High Accountability Environment, Julie Madden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative multi-case study investigated not only the role of assistant superintendents of curriculum and instruction, but the strategies and best practices used by four assistant superintendents of curriculum and instruction and a deputy superintendent of teaching and learning from East Texas in order to improve classroom instruction and support teachers in the high-stakes testing environment. The study sheds light on the role of central office leaders, their views related to the high-stakes testing environment and the impact they have on instruction for teachers and students. The responses given in this qualitative case study were carefully analyzed in order to ...

A Brief History Of Stem And Steam From An Inadvertent Insider, Lisa G. Catterall

The STEAM Journal

This article traces a history of STEM and STEAM from the perspective of someone involved in arts integration research for the last 35 years, and proposes a vision for the next steps. It also provides an assessment of the risks inherent in current trends of STEAM roll-out in schools, from the lack of resources for professional development to the burgeoning market in STEAM kits and activity books that do not lead to the original learning goals of STEAM.

A Principal Striving For Effective Instructional Leadership In An Era Of Accountability, Matthew J. Mazzoni

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this case study was to explore a principal's experiences and how they aligned to Hallinger and Murphy's (1985) effective instructional leadership practices in an era of accountability. This study of effective principal leadership is timely and relevant due to the recent implementation of national and state mandates for principals to be instructional leaders through the adoption of a distributed leadership model. This seventh year principal, also the researcher-participant in this study, had the responsibility of overseeing approximately 100 professional and support staff members and approximately 750 students ranging from pre-kindergarten to the eighth grade. The ...

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine those factors influencing a teacher’s level of adaptation to a one-to-one laptop program in a middle-school setting. The school chosen for this study is located in a semi-rural district with approximately 500 students in sixth through eighth grade. Over the past 10 years, the school district has implemented a one-to-one laptop program with students currently having access to their own personal computer each day. Collins’s (2007) technology, leadership management, and policy pyramid model provided a framework for this analysis. Teachers’ perceptions of leadership support for the planning activities ...

Factors Associated To Teacher Longevity In A Title I Elementary School: A Qualitative Narrative Inquiry Study, Richard Devney

The potential of our nation is hinged upon the strength of our educational system across all 50 states. Public education is the backbone of our country and continues to be a spotlight of focus for many. In 1983, President Ronald Regan shared the “Nation at Risk” report, based on the findings from the National Commission on Excellence in Education. The report claimed a level of mediocrity permeated the public education system and children were lagging behind compared to children in other first world countries. This landmark report put a level of accountability on school officials to create higher performing students ...